Can Mohamed Salah inspire Egypt to greatness?

There’s Only One

Mohamed Salah is inarguably the greatest player in Egyptian soccer history. Salah might be the greatest Liverpool player ever too, where he’s played his past nine seasons and is set to depart from this summer. If he isn’t, the conversation is over where he slots into the top three.

The argument is similar when it comes to his place in the pantheon of Premier League forwards. And it’s similar when it comes to his standing in the history of African soccer. Mohamed Salah is a legend whose time in England has birthed a turn of phrase: “Only Mo Salah has more.”

Whenever a player who isn’t Salah does something that might be expected to put him in the record books, he still won’t have matched the standard set by Salah. There are important players, there are star players, there are fan favorites who will be remembered and then there are legends.

Mohamed Salah is a legend. But it might be too late for it to matter.

Journey to the Summit

When Salah began his career in Europe with Basel, Chelsea, and Fiorentina, few would have projected him to become a legend. He was a pacy right winger but never spectacularly so. His talents were less for stepovers and flair than technical competence. In his early 20s, most saw his ceiling as a good forward for a top side… not someone to one day build a team around.

Then, at 23, he joined Roma in Italy and something clicked. Two years later, having failed to stick at Chelsea in the Premier League previously, he returned to England with Liverpool, joining an energetic side in revival under manager Jürgen Klopp. The results, for Salah and Liverpool, were stratospheric. He may never have been a player predisposed to flair and stepovers, but that technical competence and efficiency became honed into a kind of brutal inevitability.

For eight years, Salah driving past opponents became the norm. He would feint, cut back and wrong-foot defenders, but he was never showy for showy’s sake. It was only ever in the service of pressing forward, constantly. And he was ruthless. In 2024-25, he had arguably his best season ever, with a record-setting 47 goal involvements in the Premier League as he carried Liverpool to a league title. It was his second league title in England to add to a Champions League trophy plus countless club and individual honors.

Then, in 2025-26, his ninth year at the club, it appeared his legs had perhaps started to go. Worse, his touch and finishing began to let him down. A first touch that used to take him clear of defenders and through on goal now took him into trouble. His finishing, always so clinical, now saw him snatching at chances and missing the target. All of which brings us back to Egypt and the 2026 World Cup.

Egypt at the 2026 World Cup

This is very much the proverbial last dance for Salah with his national team. He may not retire from the international stage following it—his importance to Egypt means they certainly won’t want him to, even if his inevitable decline has begun—but it will almost certainly be the last chance for him to be the one who leads them to something special.

There have been two World Cups during Salah’s prime years. The first, in 2018, was Egypt’s first World Cup since 1990. They finished last in a group with Saudi Arabia. In 2022, they didn’t qualify. At the Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt last won in 2010. Salah made his national team debut in 2011. Since joining Liverpool in 2017 he has played in four AFCONs, with Egypt coming up short in the final twice.

On the one hand, none of this is unexpected. Egypt are one of Africa’s better sides but they have never been truly elite, globally. That 2018 World Cup was not just their first since 1990, it was their second going all the way back to 1934. So now the question is, can a Salah in decline roll back the years—though he won’t have to roll them back very far—and put Egypt on his back, carrying them to glory just as he did Liverpool in 2024-25.

The odds will be very much against him and his country. Still, in tournament soccer and perhaps especially an expanded World Cup that should make advancing to the knockout rounds a little easier for middleweight countries like 29th-ranked Egypt, anything is possible. And a lot of people will be hoping one of the all time legends of the game can finally find glory with his national team just as Lionel Messi did with Argentina in 2022.

• Egypt vs Belgium — June 15 — 3 p.m. ET from Seattle (Lumen Field)
• Egypt vs New Zealand — June 21 — 9 p.m. ET from Vancouver (BC Place)
• Egypt vs Iran — June 26 — 11 p.m. ET from Seattle (Lumen Field)

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